By MARK BERGIN, SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Updated 10:00 pm, Wednesday, January 25, 2006

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one of 10 stories on award winners to be honored at the 71st P-I Sports Star of the Year Banquet, Jan. 31 at the downtown Westin Hotel. Those attending will select the winners. Tickets are $65. Call 206-448-8066.

Kayla Burt is an exceptional basketball player. But no one seems too interested in that.

Fans, media and curious onlookers would rather discuss idiopathic ventricular fibrillation with the Washington senior.

Such medical vernacular has dominated Burt's life since her brush with death on New Year's Eve 2002. Her cardiac arrest launched a three-year saga of athletic retirement, surgery, misdiagnoses, endless tests, and a controversial comeback.

Burt retired permanently from competitive basketball Jan. 16, just four days after the heart defibrillator implanted in her chest fired during a UW game with UCLA.

"Once that happened, it was really easy for me to put the shoes to rest," she said. "I have no regrets at all."

Burt never expected to experience another cardiac episode that might trigger her defibrillator. Doctors had long-since shucked their original diagnosis of Long Q-T Syndrome and considered the original scare something of an aberration, giving the star guard full medical clearance to play.

And play she did, returning for the 2004-05 season to lead the Huskies in scoring and assists.

That dramatic turnaround earned Burt the national V Foundation comeback award and a spot among the finalists for an Espy.

But it drew a few sideways looks as well.

"For people who didn't know the whole story ... it was easy to jump to conclusions and think I'm crazy," Burt said. "But I didn't think it was a dangerous situation. I felt protected."

This season, Burt helped guide the Huskies to a 12-3 record prior to her departure. She scored 11 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, in a 77-72 victory over Pac-10 rival Stanford on Dec. 22.

Such uninhibited on-court exploits silenced her critics, even since her career-ending episode.

"I haven't heard now, 'Oh, we knew it was going to happen,' or 'Told you so,' " she said. "I haven't heard any of that. It's been more, 'Thanks for a great career; you're an inspiration.' "

At times, Burt tires of the medical talk, but she is not ashamed of her story or her decisions along the way. If given another shot to replay the past three years, she'd do it all the same -- in a heartbeat.